Digests from the KALEIDOSCAPES MONTHLY TOPIC
(HOMESCHOOLING) DISCUSSION BOARD
These are the original digests from Kaleidoscapes' MONTHLY TOPIC discussion boards.
They were hosted by two amazing gals: Giovanna Gomez and Cerelle Woods Simmons.
The boards are no longer available (thus, links to them won't work); you can, however, still
find many of the same wonderful folks who posted on the boards at Network 54.
Finally, there are no banners or pop-up ads throughout these digests.
Hopefully you will consider shopping through our Amazon links occasionally.
(Thanks!)Back to the Digest Index
Writing Without Tears
Digest (part 1)MESSAGE: WRITING WITHOUT TEARS! AUTHOR: Giovanna DATE: Tuesday, 31 August 1999, at 12:25 p.m. This is a topic I'm really looking forward to! And I'm thrilled to have Cerelle here because I know she will have some wonderful tid bits of wisdom to share! I'll start off by sharing a link an online friend of mine gave me recently. It's an article by Cafi Cohen. Enjoy! Developing a Writer's Toolkit http://www.concentric.net/~Ctcohen/writer.htm ======================================== MESSAGE: How to form a writing club. AUTHOR: Dawne DATE: Tuesday, 31 August 1999, at 3:03 p.m. Hello All!! Here is a writing question to help jump start the month! A hs-mom (friend of mine) had her daughter in a writing club last year. At that time I believe the girl was 6 or 7. For whatever reason that club won't be starting again so this mom, and I think a few others, are looking to start one in our neighborhood. My question is "WHAT do you do in "writing club"? I believe last year's club had "in between activities" but heard that some of the kids didn't do them. So my first "simple" question is just a starting question for more: What are good "in between activities"? How often should the club meet? What do you actually DO in the club meeting? What should you hope/expect the kids to do on their own between meetings? The planning meeting is Mon. Sept. 13th and I hope so much to get to it. Any of your ideas will help. I read the article posted by Giovanna and found it very helpful but we are dealing with much younger kids. Probably 6-9 years old. Most of them won't have any real knowledge of the things mentioned by Cafi in the article. I know my son knows the parts of speech really well but the goal here is to foster a love of writing in young kids. Many thanks in advance!! Here's to another great and exciting topic, Dawne ======================================== MESSAGE: Copy Work as a base AUTHOR: Nedra DATE: Tuesday, 31 August 1999, at 7:27 p.m. Hello, I am excited about this topic. I am trying to use the Ruth Beechick program. The boys (13 and 11) are given a passage to copy. We look for nouns and verbs, subject and predicate. I am hoping to find passages as a spring board to creative writing. I know LLATL uses this idea but I want our writing to revolve around the unit we are studying. Does anyone do this? I am open to ideas. God bless, Nedra ======================================== MESSAGE: Writing, How do I start???? AUTHOR: Regina in MO DATE: Tuesday, 31 August 1999, at 8:16 p.m. Help!!!! I have three very different style learners but they all hate to write. My youngest will write stories in handwriting but will not practice cursive at all. My oldest son hates any writing at all. And my middle child also a girl hates to write anything. She has no idea how to put words on paper. Forget spelling tests. We use verbal on most everything. It takes 2 hours for her to write anything. My oldest will write but he says his hand hurts. Any ideas on how to get these guys to write. Any ideas on a curriculum that would work. Practicing copy work does not work. My youngest hates everything to do with a computer. Thanks in advance. ======================================== MESSAGE: Re: Writing, How do I start???? AUTHOR: Lisa P. DATE: Tuesday, 31 August 1999, at 8:26 p.m. Response To: Writing, How do I start???? Author: Regina in MO Date: Tuesday, 31 August 1999, at 8:16 p.m. Your post didn't list ages but for younger ones you might try letting them write on a chalk or dry-erase board. Story starters can be fun too. If you can find some in there areas of interest they may take off. Good Luck! ======================================== MESSAGE: Re: Writing, How do I start???? AUTHOR: Leslie DATE: Tuesday, 31 August 1999, at 9:06 p.m. Response To: Writing, How do I start???? Author: Regina in MO Date: Tuesday, 31 August 1999, at 8:16 p.m. Hi Regina, Is it because they receive too much criticism when they write? Do they have to correct all their mistakes? I have given my kids writing starters in the past such as: "This morning I woke up with green toes and I...." or "If I could be president for a day, I'd..." or "For my birthday, my dad gave me a baby elephant, you should have seen...". If you make a daily habit of having them write very small stories, like only a few sentences, it may help. Then, don't make them correct them. Just let the creativity blossom. One more suggestion, what if they just use a tape recorder and record their story? Then, if they can learn to use the keyboard on the computer, they can type the story much faster than they can write it. I know I would much rather type than write anyday. Leslie ======================================== MESSAGE: Taking the pain out of editing AUTHOR: Leslie DATE: Tuesday, 31 August 1999, at 9:10 p.m. I learned something very valuable from the author of Writing Strands. He suggests that instead of mom reading and editing the students work, have the student read the paper out loud to mom. As he reads, he will hear his own mistakes. If he doesn't, have him read it again. This really works and since it isn't mom pointing out the mistakes, it's much less painful. The student usually wants it to sound correct so he's willing to correct it himself. This is harder for mom because mom usually hears the mistakes and immediately wants to correct. Wait mom, and let him hear it for himself. ======================================== MESSAGE: How wonderful! AUTHOR: Cerelle DATE: Tuesday, 31 August 1999, at 11:06 p.m. Response To: How to form a writing club. Author: Dawne Date: Tuesday, 31 August 1999, at 3:03 p.m. Dawne, I think your writing club is going to be a whole lot of fun for everyone! For kids that young (6 to 9), I would want to keep the activities really simple but enjoyable, so that the kids look forward to every meeting. You might start by going to the library and checking out some of the great books out there that have writing activities for young children. "Families Writing" is one that comes to mind, but there are lots of others. If getting the kids to do their "in between" activities was a problem in the past, it might be a good idea to begin with the emphasis on in-the-meeting writing activities...at least until everyone is having a good time writing and caught up in the spirit of being in a writing club. THEN you'll probably get good results when writing activities are "assigned" for the next meeting. I belong to a writers' club (for grown-up writers). There are 10 members, and we meet every week. We read our latest work aloud (just a few pages -- a chapter or a very short story) and make suggestions to one another about the work. We are very careful to be supportive and encouraging, rather than critical and negative, and this would hold especially true, I think, for young writers. Just one harsh remark could have lasting & unfortunate consequences! Some ideas that might be fun to try: creativity exercises observation exercises Mad-Libs (let the kids create their own!) character sketches (guess who?) round-robin stories (oral or written) nature walks with notebooks in hand playwriting by committee (everyone brainstorms the characters and plot of a 1-act play together, and then acts it out) OK, your turn! You could soon have enough activities to keep this club hopping for years! And once the kids get the hang of it, they'll be suggesting getting the ideas all by themselves. Sounds like a whole lot of fun, Dawne. Good luck! Cerelle ======================================== MESSAGE: Separating composition from penmanship AUTHOR: Cerelle DATE: Tuesday, 31 August 1999, at 11:24 p.m. Response To: Writing, How do I start???? Author: Regina in MO Date: Tuesday, 31 August 1999, at 8:16 p.m. I know how tempting it is to lump "cursive practice" in with "writing practice," but the two can (and probably should) be worlds apart. I say this with confidence, having struggled through the early years with 3 kids who hated to practice their handwriting but didn't mind Writing (with capital W, if you know what I mean) at all. If we DO lump them together, we risk sacrificing a child's natural expressive abilities for something as mundane as neatly formed upper case letters. When I imagine an imaginary scale that has "writing ability and joy" on one side and "tidy penmanship" on the other, there's simply no contest. Tidy penmanship IS a virtue -- I'm not disputing that -- but if it comes down to a trade-off (and with some children, it does), I'll go for the REAL writing every time. Here's one thing that I had to get clear in my head early on: Writing (the capital W kind) is really COMPOSING. It doesn't have anything to do with pens and pencils and cramped little hands. If your child dictates a story and you type or write it down, the child is clearly the author and you are only the stenographer. See the difference? Who's doing the creative work? Who gets the lion's share of the credit? The handwriting part is obviously the LEAST important part, and the part we should worry and obsess about the least, as well. But because we were trained in school to confuse these two things ourselves, we tend to perpetuate the mistake with our own children, and before we know it, they "hate to write." However, I think it would be difficult, if not impossible, to find a young child who hates to make up stories or compose songs or play with words. Keep that alive, and you've got it made. Later, when handwriting and keyboarding aren't such a chore (because the small muscle groups have had time to mature), most kids will cheerfully write their own stories down for safekeeping. Well, we have a whole month to explore these issues! I'll stop for the time being. (chuckle) Cerelle ======================================== MESSAGE: Families Writing AUTHOR: Giovanna DATE: Wednesday, 1 September 1999, at 12:20 a.m. Response To: How wonderful! Author: Cerelle Date: Tuesday, 31 August 1999, at 11:06 p.m. > "Families Writing" > is one that comes to mind, but there > are lots of others. I've never heard of this book or any other books like this. Can you tell us about it? This "writing club" idea has my brain spinning. I would LOVE to do something like this!!!! I hope more people post on this and give their suggestions. Giovanna ======================================== MESSAGE: Re: Families Writing AUTHOR: Cerelle DATE: Wednesday, 1 September 1999, at 1:58 a.m. Response To: Families Writing Author: Giovanna Date: Wednesday, 1 September 1999, at 12:20 a.m. Families Writing is one of those ever-so-helpful and invigorating books out there that can give the homeschooling parent good ideas and a fresh outlook when she (or he) is too tired or burnt-out or lazy or uninspired to dream them up on her own. What would we do without books like this? I went looking for a link to it at Amazon.com (to post here; see below) and was amused to see that a reviewer had called it her "favorite book in the whole world." I don't know if I'd go THAT far (lol!), but it's a good one. The author's name is Peter Stillman, and here's a link to it: http://www.homeschoolzone.com/amazon/books/stillman.htm But listen! Don't stop there. Books about writing are often fun to read because they're written by writers (duh!) about their favorite subject: writing. It's practically a tautology! Any public library should have a few shelves of books written to help writers write. And guess what...they're VERY inspiring! Much better than "language arts" books (yuck). (Warning: Rant On) If we want young children to write well and enjoy it, we should think of them AS WRITERS. The rules for "real" adult writers and young "student" writers are one and the same. There's no dividing line between what a 8-year-old writer does and what a 40-year-old writer does. It is my opinion that many of the writing activities found in school textbooks are insulting, embarrassing, boring, or worse. Any writer worth his salt would balk at doing them! (Rant Off) Another place to look (at the library, that is) for helpful books about the writing process is in the education section -- there are many good ones written for teachers of writing. I'm racking my brain to think of titles . . . it's been a long time. Let me check the next time I'm there, and I'll get back to you with some authors and titles, OK? Cerelle ======================================== MESSAGE: Re: Taking the pain out of editing AUTHOR: Cerelle DATE: Wednesday, 1 September 1999, at 2:12 a.m. Response To: Taking the pain out of editing Author: Leslie Date: Tuesday, 31 August 1999, at 9:10 p.m. Yes, Leslie, this is great advice! And I'll tell you something else -- for us moms who tend to be a bit obsessive about spelling and punctuation, HEARING our child's work is much more enjoyable and much less stressful than READING it. Why? Well, because we're not so distracted by all the spelling mistakes and comma errors, that's why! (Hate to admit it, but it's true.) Reading your own work aloud is a tip that is often given to adult writers, and it's one reason critique groups are so helpful. I can't count the number of times I've been reading aloud to my fellow writing friends at one of our critique meetings and heard a really jarring sentence or word that didn't stick out at me when it was just lying there on the page. It happens to all of us. A lot of times, we'll interrupt ourselves to say, "Ooo, I don't like that sentence -- don't worry, I'll change it." But we liked it fine until we heard it come out of our mouth! Cerelle ======================================== MESSAGE: Commonplace books (NOT what it sounds like!) AUTHOR: Cerelle DATE: Wednesday, 1 September 1999, at 2:56 a.m. Response To: Copy Work as a base Author: Nedra Date: Tuesday, 31 August 1999, at 7:27 p.m. Hi, Nedra! Springboarding is a very useful tool for writers, and the good thing about copying passages (rather than just reading them) is that it forces us to notice more about the structure of the piece. I know adult writers who do this very thing, and I've done it myself. If you find a piece of writing that you really admire, copying it (either by hand or on the keyboard) is almost like taking it apart to see what makes it tick. Have you ever heard of a "commonplace book"? This is an old custom we learned about a few years ago, and the kids and I have really enjoyed it. A commonplace book is just a notebook into which you copy things you especially like and want to keep for future reference. It can be a place to put great quotes you run across in your reading, verses of poetry that strike your fancy, descriptive passages that jumped out at you, etc. When Ariel, my oldest, went to college, she took her commonplace book with her! After all, it was full of favorite passages from a wide range of books -- how could she leave it behind? Cerelle ======================================== MESSAGE: Just what Ben needs! AUTHOR: Nedra DATE: Wednesday, 1 September 1999, at 8:13 a.m. Response To: Commonplace books (NOT what it sounds like!) Author: Cerelle Date: Wednesday, 1 September 1999, at 2:56 a.m. Hi Cerelle, Now I am excited. My 13 yob is very creative. So I never thought about how to teach creative thinking. But my 11 yob Ben hates to come up with an idea for a story. He refuses any suggestions or topics. His journal consists totally of numbers ( he is a number fanatic) such as date, temp, time, days till whatever. On the plus side, I have a wonderful resource for the county to prove we did school. But Ben loves Bill Myers' book which are very creative. Ben reads like crazy. So now I can take his favorite passages and give him a creative "bank" of ideas for when he is stumped. I love Ruth Beechick's books but it is great to hear other writers who use this idea. Thanks! God bless, Nedra > > Cerelle ======================================== MESSAGE: Connection btwn "movement" and "language". ALL opinions sought. AUTHOR: Dawne DATE: Wednesday, 1 September 1999, at 10:55 a.m. Ok, at a recent homeschool meeting we wandered into chatting afterwards. We sat doing the usual thing parents do; sharing joys and concerns. Several of the moms have taught/are teaching in a wide variety of "educational philosophies". It was mentioned the relation btwn crawling and scores later in reading. Also, the connection btwn the right and left side of the brain. ANYWAY...b/c of their backgrounds I assume these women are right. Even if they are not they wouldn't just lie on purpose. So...since I don't have this background one of the moms suggested something. IF one struggles with "putting thoughts to paper" they still need a *rich language experiece*. Several suggestions were given. Have them dictate stories or create stories about a picture they have just drawn etc.., One thing that was mentioned that surprised me is the use of memorizing and reciting poems. And the poem I remember most is said to be from "Through the looking glass". I think it is supposed to great for confidence and fun too but I suspect it also helps them "get into the feel of a piece". So my questions are: WHAT is the nature of the relationship btwn language and movement? HOW should one encourage this "movement" in order to strengthen language? HOW will memorizing poems/passages later aid in writing skills? WHAT poems are good for a 7 year old with a fairly good memory? As usual, thank you to all of you in advance. I find this to be a super interesting topic and hope my post was clear enough. Very tired today. Dawne ======================================== MESSAGE: Moving and memorizing (l-o-n-g) AUTHOR: Cerelle DATE: Wednesday, 1 September 1999, at 12:09 p.m. Response To: Connection btwn "movement" and "language". ALL opinions sought. Author: Dawne Date: Wednesday, 1 September 1999, at 10:55 a.m. Dawne, I'm going to go out on a limb here by stating my opinion that brain research is in its infancy, and while there are many, many interesting and suggestive things in the literature right now (research literature, that is), I'm not sure I'd want to take ANY of it to the bank just yet. However...that said...I love trying to keep up with latest research and seeing how much (if any) of it seems to make sense to me in the context of my own children's learning behaviors. It never hurts to try out new ideas. As far as the crawling/reading connection, I remember when these studies were first being done and reported on (in the '70s? maybe?), and it did seem really interesting to me. The researchers were working with children with delayed reading skills and finding that many of these same children had never crawled "properly" as babies. Some had skipped the crawling stage altogether, going straight from sitting to walking. The theory was that the coordination involved in crawling somehow reinforced the brain centers responsible for reading skills. Next, the researchers began pioneering "crawling therapy" for delayed readers. Both theory and therapy attracted their fair share of criticism and skepticism, but that's par for any new idea. I don't know how this approach is currently faring. I do think the mind-body connection is stronger than previously believed and I suspect there's a lot more out there (or in here) for us to learn about the interdependency of physical, mental, and emotional states. But one more thing, Dawne -- I would not assume that someone is right about something, simply because of her (or his) background. My "background" is that I have 14 years' experience in homeschooling, but I can still be DEAD WRONG about things pertaining to homeschooling! Teachers can be wrong about teaching and learning, just as doctors can be wrong about a diagnosis and your mechanic can be wrong about why your car's engine is making that awful racket. So. I'm not saying you shouldn't listen to your friends & fellow homeschoolers and learn from them, but don't trust them blindly just because they have "teaching backgrounds." I think memorizing poetry is a wonderful thing for children to do. Lots and lots of reasons -- but first and foremost is my memory of how much I enjoyed reciting the poems my parents taught me when I was very young. This was part and parcel of my daily life when I was a kid. I remember reciting long poems with my father at the dinner table, and it was something that brought us closer together, believe it or not. We took a special pleasure in knowing those lines and being able to say them together. So that's one reason. But there's also the elocution angle. Memorizing and reciting poetry is the same thing as speech practice. Do you know why tongue twisters are traditionally taught to children? Because they HELP them perfect the particular sounds of our language. Other languages have their own versions of "All around the rugged rocks the ragged rascals ran." And then there's the delight in the sounds of poetry -- the rhyme and alliteration and assonance. Kids love that stuff, and they have more time to appreciate it than we adults do. I believe memorization is a big part of what makes poetry special. Historically, human beings have enjoyed memorizing epic poems & song lyrics. All the cultures of the world have "oral traditions," and as a parents & teachers, it's our job to pass those traditions onto the next generation. This is our language that we give them -- a precious thing! There's a wonderful book called The Horse of Pride, by Pierre-Jakez Hélias. This is a nonfictional account of the author's childhood in Brittany (France), and to me, the most beautiful part of it is the description of the way in which his grandfather shared the regional culture (language, beliefs, practical know-how, etc.) with him. > HOW should one encourage this "movement" > in order to strengthen language? Just a silly idea, but I remember how much I loved doing "marching rhymes" with my dad when I was little. These were little chants he remembered from his days in the army, and we used to march and recite them together. Of course, I've taught them to my kids, too, and we are not above breaking into them in public places! LOL! > HOW will memorizing poems/passages > later aid in writing skills? It's language! And writing is language! It's all language. To have good writing skills, you need good language skills. You need to have developed an intuitive sense of how language works, a rich and varied vocabulary, and fluency (among other things). Memorization enhances all of the above, but it should be a DELIGHT for the child, not a chore. I am horrified that someone might read this and force their child to memorize 25 lines of Kubla Khan before bedtime. > WHAT poems are good for a 7 year > old with a fairly good memory? I have two answers. Any poems he likes, and any poems YOU like. The first poem I ever learned by heart was by Lord Byron, and I was about 3. It was NOT the sort of thing we'd normally think of as a "children's poem," but my father happened to love it, so he taught it to me. Result? I loved it, too! > Very tired today. Hope you get some rest! How about climbing up in the bed with a book of poetry? ;-) Cerelle ======================================== MESSAGE: Re: Taking the pain out of editing AUTHOR: Janet in NM DATE: Wednesday, 1 September 1999, at 12:27 p.m. Response To: Taking the pain out of editing Author: Leslie Date: Tuesday, 31 August 1999, at 9:10 p.m. Another thing we have found: Our kids write on the computer, and we have found editing more effective if they print out the piece, rather than just reading it on the screen. The errors seem more visible when they see them on the printed page. I have found this with my posts here, too. I will read over the post I have just typed and see no errors, then after I have posted it and see it in a different font, the errors just leap out at me. Janet > I learned something very valuable > from the author of Writing Strands. > He suggests that instead of mom reading > and editing the students work, have > the student read the paper out loud > to mom. As he reads, he will hear his > own mistakes. If he doesn't, have him > read it again. This really works and > since it isn't mom pointing out the > mistakes, it's much less painful. The > student usually wants it to sound correct > so he's willing to correct it himself. > This is harder for mom because mom usually > hears the mistakes and immediately wants > to correct. Wait mom, and let him hear > it for himself. ======================================== MESSAGE: Reading aloud... AUTHOR: Liz DATE: Wednesday, 1 September 1999, at 1:20 p.m. Response To: Taking the pain out of editing Author: Leslie Date: Tuesday, 31 August 1999, at 9:10 p.m. As a writer, reading aloud is my most habitual, revising habit. I read aloud while I am writing, and my girls joke about mom talking to herself. I do it automatically, without even thinking. I get very annoyed if the radio/stereo/tv is too loud so I cannot hear myself. The errors leap off the page and are easier to spot & correct. In teaching my 7th grader, I finally, two months ago, realized I needed to teach her to do this. I've never taken formal writing courses, or been a part of a writing critique group, but I intuitively knew this worked for me, and might for her. It has made a world of difference! I could kick myself for not doing it sooner. She reads her writing to me now, and finds her errors without me saying a word. I believe this works because we are enabling another of our 5 senses. Hearing what we have written, even if we ourselves are reading it aloud, is a powerful editing tool, for adults and children. ======================================== MESSAGE: Here's one of those books, Cerelle.. AUTHOR: Liz DATE: Wednesday, 1 September 1999, at 2:00 p.m. Response To: Re: Families Writing Author: Cerelle Date: Wednesday, 1 September 1999, at 1:58 a.m. This book, written specifically for teachers, is about getting students ready for state writing assessment tests, but I found it extremely useful for teaching actual writing techniques without all the twaddle. In her introduction, she admits to being upset when her state "imposed another arbitrary test." But what she found happening, after this test was enacted, the other teachers, not just English teachers, began giving lots of writing assignments to boost student scores. And student scores improved dramatically. She states this could be for a variety of reasons-increase in amount of writing assigned, focus on communication, not just mechanics, writing across the curriculum, etc. Anyhow, she began to do research and narrow down the techniques used by successful teachers, writers, and educational professionals who produce concrete, concise, correct communication. Her steps are simple to follow even for those like myself who are not educational professionals. Her first step is getting students to use strong verb paragraphs. The book is only 100 pages long, but I credit it for bringing my daughter's writing up 2 grade levels since we began using this 2 years ago. (I can't wait to see her score this year.) The last section of the book gives 42 samples of actual students' writing and critiques. I have learned how to better evaluate my own writing by working through this with my daughter! The samples given are from 4th, 8th, & 10th grade students. This has become my absolute favorite writing resource, and it was cheap compared to other writing curriculums-I know-I have several!! I've tried Writing Strands, Understanding Writing, and others. I purchased this at a local bookstore, but here is the ISBN #0-929895-17-7, written by Jane Bell Kiester. It's probably available online somewhere. Also, (I'll hurry!), another good one (for older writers) is Writing Down the Bones, by Nathalie Goldberg. Wonderful resource for teaching writing quickly, creatively, and bending the rules of language mechanics. Sorry so long!! Hope some of this helps!! Liz Families Writing is one of those ======================================== MESSAGE: Ok, READ THIS (I'm better rested ha ha). Need to thank you and clarify. AUTHOR: Dawne DATE: Wednesday, 1 September 1999, at 2:30 p.m. Response To: Moving and memorizing (l-o-n-g) Author: Cerelle Date: Wednesday, 1 September 1999, at 12:09 p.m. > But one more thing, Dawne -- I > would not assume that someone is right > about something, simply because of her > (or his) background. My "background" > is that I have 14 years' experience > in homeschooling, but I can still be > DEAD WRONG about things pertaining to > homeschooling! Teachers can be wrong > about teaching and learning, just as > doctors can be wrong about a diagnosis > and your mechanic can be wrong about > why your car's engine is making that > awful racket. So. I'm not saying you > shouldn't listen to your friends & > fellow homeschoolers and learn from > them, but don't trust them blindly just > because they have "teaching backgrounds." > Ok, you're right to call me on this b/c it was badly written. What I meant was I'm sure when they were talking about X sudy by Y researcher they were correct in relating the study's findings to me, one of the few in the room who hadn't read it. I trust that their memory of certain study's and statistics are correct. Also, I sure hope I didn't paint them in a bad light. Everything offered was then reacted to by opinions and personal experiences. MY main problem is that everything was said so fast and much of it as a tangent that I didn't get to really internalize it so it could gel :( [guess who is going to take a class in this very subject very soon now? :0) ] Your ideas were quite marvelous! I'm sure that many of the ideas work. That ought to be enough but I always want to know how and why. Subjects like this would bore 95% of the people I know and yet I'm enthralled!! Hadn't thought of the marching idea. I know Ben would love it. He'd be excited that I'd let him "march in the house" b/c we have neighbors underneath, but they do of course,go to work :) Recently came home from Europe and I bought all sorts of "music makers" at a market. {WHAT was I thinking???} An African drum, a few "shake-type" things and a few more I can't easily subscribe. I bet he'd like to make up a poem and then put it to music like the Star Spangled Banner. One great thing about Ben is that his listening comprehension is astounding! I'll be focusing on that in the coming months to keep his confidence up. He's being tested for dyslexia this month and shows signs of dysgraphia so the written word can be difficult for him. Someone suggested that we focus on "composition" skills and have fun with it while we try to find the best path for his reading instruction. I plan to open school next week with a week on poetry and its different forms. What do you think about just having him dictate to me for me to write them? He could always copy them from the board "for the record, for the county". Thanks again for all of your great ideas. I knew I'd get some if I posted it here. Dawne ======================================== MESSAGE: A Young Writer's Club AUTHOR: Giovanna DATE: Wednesday, 1 September 1999, at 6:19 p.m. Ever since I read Dawne's post about her writer's club my brain has been spinning. I really want to start one! The children involved would range from 5-11 years of age. How could I possibly do this? I would love any ideas. The emphasis of our club would definitely be creativity...not handwriting. What do you all think? ======================================== MESSAGE: Keeping it interesting. AUTHOR: Suzi DATE: Wednesday, 1 September 1999, at 6:21 p.m. Well, I know that this may not sit well with those of us who screen everything that their kids do, however, as the parent of a very gifted child I have had to make come concessions so as to keep the "light on" in her educational experience. I do not advocate a liberal agenda at all and therefore I tend to screen whatever is influencing her anyway. But I have some to see the value in some online sites that have "fanfics" to read and/or write. For example she and some of her friends are obssessed with DRAGON BALL Z right now. She has bookmarked many sites and is presently reading other kids stories and writing her own. This is developing plots, characters...everything! It is worth it to me to overlook the fact that I would rather she have a yearning for things a little more classical:). It is also allowing her to see other kids writing, good and bad. I just make sure it is balanced with sound reading and we often have discussions about character issues along with all of this. She has several ongoing stories as we speak and has started a poetry journal as a result of our discussions of song lyrics and what is uplifting and what is not. I know that writing is like pulling teeth for some children, so I think that HIGH INTEREST is the key here, because I spent several years trying to get her to give more information on paper when writing. It must be working... I have a friend who is a professional English teacher that helps me to evaluate her progress and she commented that she forgot she was not reading a high-schoolers paper. This made me very proud!! She was 11 at the time. Also READ READ READquality literature. ======================================== MESSAGE: Dictation AUTHOR: Giovanna DATE: Wednesday, 1 September 1999, at 6:29 p.m. Response To: Connection btwn "movement" and "language". ALL opinions sought. Author: Dawne Date: Wednesday, 1 September 1999, at 10:55 a.m. > IF one struggles with "putting > thoughts to paper" they still need > a *rich language experiece*. Several > suggestions were given. Have them dictate > stories or create stories about a picture > they have just drawn etc.., Speaking of dictation, check out this neat site. I know this mom has done tons of neat stuff with dictation. http://www.bright.net/%7Edouble/dictate.htm ======================================== MESSAGE: Yes, I agree! AUTHOR: Liz DATE: Wednesday, 1 September 1999, at 8:55 p.m. Response To: Keeping it interesting. Author: Suzi Date: Wednesday, 1 September 1999, at 6:21 p.m. We do want that lofty ideal of our kids yearning for timeless, classical knowledge, don't we? But I too, have discovered with my oldest that writing is a lot less effortless when she writes her passion, not some topic I chose to get her started. ======================================== MESSAGE: Debra Bell's book... AUTHOR: Liz DATE: Wednesday, 1 September 1999, at 9:09 p.m. Response To: A Young Writer's Club Author: Giovanna Date: Wednesday, 1 September 1999, at 6:19 p.m. might help. On pg 205 she lists a book titled "Writer's Co-op Handbook", by Maggie Hogan (1996). It's available in her catalog, and her website, www.hsrc.com, (hot linked below)for $6.95. Haven't seen it, but it sounds good. Also, something I'm doing with my co-op group this year, is a book by David Melton, "Written & Illustrated By...". This is a scripted, 17 step plan for producing books-written, illustrated and bound by students age 6-60. He believes writing talent is a myth, just something that gets better with practice, lots of practice. This idea worked so well, he started a contest to actually publish the best of these books. We have read several of the winners in our public library. The contest is a yearly thing, and when we finish ours we're going to enter them. Information is in the back of the book, and probably available online somewhere. It's definitely creativity driven! Hope this helps! Good luck! Liz ======================================== MESSAGE: Here's a book that I found very helpful AUTHOR: Amber in FL DATE: Thursday, 2 September 1999, at 9:28 a.m. Response To: Writing, How do I start???? Author: Regina in MO Date: Tuesday, 31 August 1999, at 8:16 p.m. "If you're trying to teach kids how to write, you've gotta have this book!" by Marjorie Frank I think you can find this in the library. This book helped me to lighten up about creative writing by giving me so many great and easy ideas. One of the ideas that has been successful with my 11 yods reluctant writer is writing a short news flash on the subject. For example, we are doing a study on Ancient Egypt and he was reading books on mummies. I wanted him to keep a history journal and write down the points of interest that jumped out at him. He decided to write his journal as newspaper stories. His latest handprinted entry went like this: "EGYPTIANS THROW AWAY THE PHARAOH'S BRAIN! To complete the mummification the physitions pulled the brain out through the nose and since they didn't know what it was for they just simply threw it away. The lungs, stomach, liver and intestines were all mummified separetely and were sealed in canopic jars." ======================================== MESSAGE: We did radio broadcasts... AUTHOR: Liz DATE: Thursday, 2 September 1999, at 10:39 a.m. Response To: Here's a book that I found very helpful Author: Amber in FL Date: Thursday, 2 September 1999, at 9:28 a.m. during our ancient Egypt studies, my daughter wrote radio broadcasts, and we taped them. They are still hilarious to listen to!! ======================================== MESSAGE: Here is my favorite "news flash" AUTHOR: Amber in FL DATE: Thursday, 2 September 1999, at 12:09 p.m. Response To: We did radio broadcasts... Author: Liz Date: Thursday, 2 September 1999, at 10:39 a.m. "SODOM AND GOMORRAHA DESTROYED! Lott's wife saw the whole thing and was killed by being turned into a pillar of salt. Lott had no comment." I love the "no comment" line! And what is so encouraging about allowing them to express themselves in creative ways, is that they tend to branch out and go further when they see that they can do it and that the end product is something that they return to over and over again to re-read. ======================================== MESSAGE: T. Davis Bunn on the writing process AUTHOR: Amber in FL DATE: Thursday, 2 September 1999, at 12:24 p.m. About two years ago, I attended a writer's meeting where the author, T. David Bunn (The Quilt) was the guest speaker. He spoke on how he came to be a writer. Afterward, he opened the floor for questions. So, I asked him how best to deal with a then 11 yo, expressively gifted daughter who was very verbally gifted but couldn't spell "beans." He said, "Can you say, 'spell check?'" He went on to explain that the there are *many* people who can spell and construct grammatically correct sentences . . . these are called, "editors." But that there are *few* who have the gift of expression. He said that getting the ideas out of the head and onto paper (computer, or tape recorder) was the most important thing and that I should do my best to first help her accomplish this goal by any means available and then to make the editing process secondary. He said that no writer ever published anything without many revisions. Since then, I have tried to lighten up about her spelling. Now that she is almost 14, her spelling has improved and she has her own pocket-sized word book that she uses when she edits her work. BTW - She skipped crawling. She "swam" across the floor. She reads voraciously, though, but she can't run properly and doesn't swing her arms with her legs the way "normal" people do. I have been told by some people that she would benefit from the crawling therapy mentioned earlier. I have even been told that it might improve her spelling. Just thought I'd throw that in for fun. ;-) ======================================== MESSAGE: writing idea AUTHOR: J. VanDyk DATE: Thursday, 2 September 1999, at 3:51 p.m. Response To: How to form a writing club. Author: Dawne Date: Tuesday, 31 August 1999, at 3:03 p.m. We do something similar to a round robin type story. Each of us (4 children, 2 adults) has created a medieval charater, we have duotang with lined paper, we take turns adding to the story from the view point of our character. At least one person has to make an addition each day, and it can be anything from a few lines to a couple of pages. ======================================== MESSAGE: Journaling Ideas! AUTHOR: Giovanna DATE: Thursday, 2 September 1999, at 5:12 p.m. Last year Andrew and his daddy started the "DADDY AND ME JOURNAL". This is done in one of those composition notebooks and daddy writes a message at night while Andrew is sleeping and in the morning Andrew answers it. They've written to each other about all kinds of stuff. I've never corrected the journal. His first few entries were hysterical--the spelling! But now he is getting quite better. It's a neat way to see progress and also a special a keepsake! ======================================== MESSAGE: Re: Dictation AUTHOR: Amber in FL DATE: Thursday, 2 September 1999, at 5:18 p.m. Response To: Re: Dictation Author: Katie in Wisconsin Date: Thursday, 2 September 1999, at 4:09 p.m. We used this method when we did a unit study on art, based on Valerie Bendt's book. The final product was my children's version of art history complete with illustrations. I typed what they came up with on the computer, as they dictated it, then printed out each page (only a few lines on each page, usually). They would then illustrate that page. We put the finished "story" in page-protectors and then into a narrow 3-ring binder, complete with cover page. They were so proud. It would be the first thing they would pull down to show friends and relatives who asked, "So, what have you been doing in school lately?" We still get a great chuckle out of their versions of great pieces of art. ;-) ======================================== MESSAGE: These are worth more than gold! AUTHOR: Amber in FL DATE: Thursday, 2 September 1999, at 5:30 p.m. Response To: Journaling Ideas! Author: Giovanna Date: Thursday, 2 September 1999, at 5:12 p.m. Last summer my two children spent 9 weeks with their grandparents in the mountains of North Carolina (we won't get into overwhelming shock of a clean, quiet, empty house!). The only "educational" thing I asked them to do was to keep a journal. As my daughter was then 12, my mother didn't feel free to read what she was writing. But my ds, then 10, was more than happy to share each day's entry (and picture) with Granny and Grampy. What has made this journal so special is that my mother made additional entries in his journal each night after he had gone to bed. Now I have a lasting treasure that is precious to me now and will someday be precious to him. BTW - I used the small Bien Fang art journals (they can be puchased at any craft store) because they have open space to draw or glue things at the top and several lines at the bottom to write and the paper is thick enough (yet still slick) to accept glue. ======================================== MESSAGE: what is duotang with lined paper? nt AUTHOR: snow DATE: Thursday, 2 September 1999, at 5:48 p.m. Response To: writing idea Author: J. VanDyk Date: Thursday, 2 September 1999, at 3:51 p.m. ======================================== MESSAGE: HEHEHE!!! AUTHOR: Liz DATE: Thursday, 2 September 1999, at 6:16 p.m. Response To: T. Davis Bunn on the writing process Author: Amber in FL Date: Thursday, 2 September 1999, at 12:24 p.m. I can just see my oldest dd on her hands and knees crawling around the living room spelling her words orally! She would love this, wouldn't she?!!! Seriously, I agree with this author, and was told the same information by our educational consultant who administers our required, annual achievement test. (My dd reads voraciously several grade levels above her age, but spells like a turnip.) Her advice? Get one of those electronic, pocket, spell checks. We did, and it has improved her spelling slightly I must say. At first I resisted this because I felt it was "cheating". And now that I think of it, she didn't spend much time crawling. She was walking at 9 months! Maybe there is some truth to this??? Tomorrow's lesson? Crawling!! ; ) Liz ======================================== MESSAGE: Whatever you do, don't call it 'writing workshop' :). . . (long) AUTHOR: dmx DATE: Thursday, 2 September 1999, at 10:08 p.m. Response To: A Young Writer's Club Author: Giovanna Date: Wednesday, 1 September 1999, at 6:19 p.m. We've had a very small homeschoolers group for about 6 years now. Off and on, we've done work with writing. The all-time favorite activity & one frequently requested even outside of 'writing activities' is the round robin type story. When we first started our homeschool group, a mother took a huge sheet of white paper & hung it on the wall. On this she would write a story created by the kids as a group. She often started off writing a sentence herself to get things going or asked kids for a suggestion. Then she went around the group and asked kids for the next sentence or two. At the end, the whole story is read out loud. Even toddlers can contribute this way. The kids LOVED it - it's a bit of work for the parent - writing fast & legibly isn't easy. As the kids got older and could write tolerably, we changed it so that each kid has a piece of paper. They start a story (1 or more sentences) on a piece of paper. Then everyone passes their piece of paper to the next one. They add a sentence or two to the previous story. This second writer folds the paper down so the 1st entry isn't visible & passes it on to the next writer. This goes on until everyone has contributed to every story. The stories are then read out loud - with hilarious results. Another loved activity. These activities can then be expanded to paragraphs or pages. My son has done two round robin story sessions with kids in other states. Each one writes a page & sends it on. He still loves doing this. Another thing I've done has been working with poetry. The kids have also loved this. I got a lot of ideas from Kenneth Koch's ROSE, WHERE DID YOU GET THAT RED. This book has ideas that Koch has used teaching poetry writing to students in the elementary grades. He says that alot of kids like poetry, but have a hard time getting started - it sounds like such a difficult thing to do. Most of these ideas worked well for us. Ideas like: - start every line with 'I wish. . .' -start one line with 'I used to be. . ' and the next line with 'but now. . .' - create a scene & have them continue: 'you are in Africa in the jungle, you are hiking a long a trail & you come upon tiger - what do you do' - pretend you are an inanimate object - a cheerio, a baseball about to be hit. (We got some hilarious and really good poetry out of this one). - use a color in each line Well, you get the idea. I titled this 'don't call it a writing workshop' because of my personal experience. Whenever we made the mistake of actually titling it as a workshop, class, etc, groans erupted. But, without exception, they actually LOVED the activities we did. So, I thought you might avoid the mistake by thinking up other things to call it: making up stories? Well, I don't have time to edit this - hope it is understandable. I'm happy to think back & try to come up with other ideas that worked. I have loved working with kids on writing & have actually had some success. One thing is that we had a group of kids with a wide-range of abilities. Some parents wrote for their kids; some read their kids' stories when they were too shy. In the end, they all did some really good work over the years. Oh, one more quick thing - printing their work in a newsletter made a huge difference. They really liked that - were able to show it to family & friends, etc. ======================================== MESSAGE: Round Robins AUTHOR: LK DATE: Friday, 3 September 1999, at 1:03 a.m. Response To: Whatever you do, don't call it 'writing workshop' :). . . (long) Author: dmx Date: Thursday, 2 September 1999, at 10:08 p.m. They do these round robin stories on the Homeschool Kid's Club Message Board at PrestonSpeed. The kids really seem to enjoy them, and I would say most of the kids participating are in about the 7 to 12 age group. You can go look at some that they have done. LK ======================================== MESSAGE: Fan fiction and Web Page Writing AUTHOR: LK DATE: Friday, 3 September 1999, at 1:18 a.m. Response To: Keeping it interesting. Author: Suzi Date: Wednesday, 1 September 1999, at 6:21 p.m. Writing fan fiction is a GREAT way to encourage storywriting. I while back, I found this webpage with book reviews done by a 5 yo - very simple, dictated book reviews - he does one a month on his web page. Now he is 8 and I have followed his progress as a writer. WOW! He now has a page on Pompeii and volcanoes which seems to be his thing, and also a joke page. I think having his own webpage has been quite a motivator for him. This year, he has added a fan fiction Oz story called My Family in Oz. I will link his page below. Now I need to go learn how to design a webpage. LK ======================================== MESSAGE: Copy work..... AUTHOR: Christina DATE: Friday, 3 September 1999, at 9:17 a.m. Give me your opinions on copy work. Is there any value? My youngest ds will willingly do 1/2 page of creative writing or journaling each day but balks at more. But he doesn't mind doing 1/2 page creative followed by 1/2 page copying. I feel that as a new cursive writer I am covering penmanship and by choosing good literature passages for him to copy, who knows? He might even retain some of it! What do you ladies think? ======================================== MESSAGE: Great ideas! AUTHOR: Liz DATE: Friday, 3 September 1999, at 9:37 a.m. Response To: Whatever you do, don't call it 'writing workshop' :). . . (long) Author: dmx Date: Thursday, 2 September 1999, at 10:08 p.m. We have a small co-op. I'm going to use the round robin idea to write a story connected with our focus this year-geography. I plan to do it on the computer, as the kids talk. Then print copies for each child. Younger ones can illustrate! Thanks!! Liz ======================================== MESSAGE: descriptions AUTHOR: Jo-Anne in SW Ontario DATE: Friday, 3 September 1999, at 9:39 a.m. Response To: what is duotang with lined paper? nt Author: snow Date: Thursday, 2 September 1999, at 5:48 p.m. Duotangs are a light weight cardboard material that look like thin books, they have three clips inside, you place the standard 3 hole lined paper over these clips and fold them down to hold the paper in place. It creates an instant book for recording things. Another similar product is made by Trilock, it uses 2 longer bars, that fold down and a second bar to hold them in place. ======================================== MESSAGE: I think you're doing it just right... AUTHOR: Cerelle DATE: Friday, 3 September 1999, at 10:03 a.m. Response To: Copy work..... Author: Christina Date: Friday, 3 September 1999, at 9:17 a.m. Christina, I love it that you're keeping cursive practice separate from creative writing practice. This way, the purpose of each activity is clear. I think it's confusing (and very frustrating) for children when we encourage them to journal or write original stories and then gripe about the sloppy penmanship. (See my post about keeping the two things separate, below.) When I've gotten in trouble around here (as a teaching mom, that is), the usual problem was that I had piled on the expectations in such a way that the kids felt unable to satisfy all my requirements. Perhaps I had corrected their timing on a piano piece when they were still trying to learn the notes and fingering. Perhaps I had complained about misspellings in a heartfelt thank-you note the child had just written to a grandparent. Copy work can be a very satisfying activity, in my opinion. You get to concentrate on one thing: penmanship. There's no pressure to be original or brilliant -- you just try to make it look good! There will always be SOME kids, though, who will hate it, hate it, hate it...and for those children, we have to think creatively and figure out what's most important for that child. Meanwhile, if your son seems to enjoy doing 1/2 a page of copy work, by all means let him do it! Lucky you... :-) Cerelle > Give me your opinions on copy work. > Is there any value? My youngest ds will > willingly do 1/2 page of creative writing > or journaling each day but balks at > more. But he doesn't mind doing 1/2 > page creative followed by 1/2 page copying. > I feel that as a new cursive writer > I am covering penmanship and by choosing > good literature passages for him to > copy, who knows? He might even retain > some of it! What do you ladies think? > ======================================== MESSAGE: Re: Copy work..... AUTHOR: Joyce U. DATE: Friday, 3 September 1999, at 1:16 p.m. Response To: Copy work..... Author: Christina Date: Friday, 3 September 1999, at 9:17 a.m. Hi Christina, I have gone back to copywork with all my kids, even the oldest....16 y/o. Even though it is so simple I think it gives some 'meat' for my kids to feed their minds on. They see good writing, punctuation and vocabulary (and I am finding even spelling). I love how you have balanced out out the creative side that comes from inside him and his copying of others' works. Since creativity doesn't flow out of a vacuum, you are really laying down some great ideas on which his mind can work. It may not be seen till much later though so be encouraged. :>) Sincerely, Joyce U. > Give me your opinions on copy work. > Is there any value? My youngest ds will > willingly do 1/2 page of creative writing > or journaling each day but balks at > more. But he doesn't mind doing 1/2 > page creative followed by 1/2 page copying. > I feel that as a new cursive writer > I am covering penmanship and by choosing > good literature passages for him to > copy, who knows? He might even retain > some of it! What do you ladies think? > ======================================== MESSAGE: Re: what is duotang with lined paper? nt AUTHOR: Katie in Wisconsin DATE: Friday, 3 September 1999, at 5:00 p.m. Response To: what is duotang with lined paper? nt Author: snow Date: Thursday, 2 September 1999, at 5:48 p.m. K-Mart has sketch books like this in their school section. They are spiril bound, with nice, thick scetch paper and lines on the bottom half for writing. We're using them for Nature Notebooks, drawing what we see, then adding latin names, common names, writing poetry or descriptions, etc. Katie > ======================================== MESSAGE: Re: We did radio broadcasts... AUTHOR: liz DATE: Friday, 3 September 1999, at 9:44 p.m. Response To: We did radio broadcasts... Author: Liz Date: Thursday, 2 September 1999, at 10:39 a.m. We did a short newspaper. We used the Bible and did a short news brief. The funniest one was an article on Solomon. Also fun was drawing the advertisements and writing the little sales slogans. Do something fun. Forget about the heavy stuff until after they get their feet wet with the fun things. You could have a flier of the week. Let them select one Bible story and write a news paper about it....complete with advertisers. Good luck. Liz in SC > during our ancient Egypt studies, > my daughter wrote radio broadcasts, > and we taped them. They are still hilarious > to listen to!! > ======================================== MESSAGE: liz AUTHOR: liz DATE: Friday, 3 September 1999, at 9:47 p.m. Response To: Taking the pain out of editing Author: Leslie Date: Tuesday, 31 August 1999, at 9:10 p.m. And....teach them the editing symbols and give them a red pen. Let them be the teacher. If you have more than one child at home, you may be able to let them edit one another's papers. Liz in SC > I learned something very valuable > from the author of Writing Strands. > He suggests that instead of mom reading > and editing the students work, have > the student read the paper out loud > to mom. As he reads, he will hear his > own mistakes. If he doesn't, have him > read it again. This really works and > since it isn't mom pointing out the > mistakes, it's much less painful. The > student usually wants it to sound correct > so he's willing to correct it himself. > This is harder for mom because mom usually > hears the mistakes and immediately wants > to correct. Wait mom, and let him hear > it for himself. ======================================== MESSAGE: On-line writing curriculums-free! AUTHOR: Liz DATE: Saturday, 4 September 1999, at 7:18 p.m. 1. Paradigm Writing Assistant-can be downloaded to your desktop. Full curriculum-best for jrh/hs ages. www.powa.org (hot linked below) 2. Cute writing site for 1-5 gr (I estimate!)-Wolf's Den. Also has vocabulary program where you can sign up for word of the day to be emailed directly to you, 7 days a week! Lots of topics, activities in writing sentences, paragraphs. Quizzes, teacher's guide. This month's topic-wolves. www2.actden.com/writ_den/index.htm 3. Graphic organizers for writing/compiling information www.graphic.org/home.html 4. Evaluation rubrics for writing: www.sdcoe.k12.ca.us/score/actbank/srubrics.htm : ) Liz ======================================== MESSAGE: Writing Strands, etc. AUTHOR: Audrey DATE: Sunday, 5 September 1999, at 12:45 a.m. I have a lot of education experience, but am fairly new to homeschooling. My daughter, age 11, has adhd, but is doing fairly well. She goes to public school in the morning for math and science (my least fav. subjects) and I homeschool her for the rest of her subjects. (The school is across the street from my house and is the #1 rated middle school in my 'large' city). Anyway, I was thrilled to see this site on the web, especially since my biggest concern with my daughter is her writing (& spelling) skills. Has anyone here worked with Writing Stands? I purchased a workbook that I like called Four Square writing method...anyone ever use that? Anybody have any suggestions re: resources for spelling? handwriting? Thanks. ======================================== MESSAGE: Great Source Handbooks AUTHOR: LK DATE: Sunday, 5 September 1999, at 9:16 a.m. Response To: Writing Strands, etc. Author: Audrey Date: Sunday, 5 September 1999, at 12:45 a.m. I really like the writing handbooks by Great Source. These is not a curriculum, there are no sequential lessons. But within each are many different writing projects appropriate for the grade level. For instance, the second grade one covers journaling, writing all about me stories, writing friendly notes, writing business letters (for real life useful purposes like joining a club or getting a magazine subscription), making a subject dictionary or encyclopedia (like one on dinosaurs or animals, or inventions), making writing circle stories, fables, mystery stories, newspaper articles, writing small poems and shape poems, and more. For each project there are step by step instructions, a student model, and fun ideas that you can incorporate - like cutting out your friendly note into a shape like a pumpkin or a Xmas tree. The handbook also has sections on grammar and punctuation, a spelling dictionary for common words, many maps and charts, writing sentences and paragraphs, making and using graphs, a table of irregular verb forms, etc. I think they are a wonderful resource for a homeschooling family. There are different handbooks for different grades. Laura ======================================== MESSAGE: Re: Moving and memorizing (l-o-n-g) AUTHOR: Anne DATE: Sunday, 5 September 1999, at 11:04 a.m. Response To: Moving and memorizing (l-o-n-g) Author: Cerelle Date: Wednesday, 1 September 1999, at 12:09 p.m. Of my three children, two skipped the crawling stage. Neither of them has had any reading difficulties. ======================================== MESSAGE: spelling AUTHOR: Leslie DATE: Sunday, 5 September 1999, at 11:33 a.m. Response To: Writing Strands, etc. Author: Audrey Date: Sunday, 5 September 1999, at 12:45 a.m. This is my fifth year homeschooling. We tried many different types of spelling programs. After finding they were not producing lasting spelling skills, I finally started having my daughter make her own spelling notebook. This notebook is a simple spiral bound notebook with each page labeled for one letter in the alphabet. We circle the misspelled words in her own writing. She writes the word the way she spelled it on the appropriate page. She looks up the word and then writes the proper spelling next to the original. We go over the spelling rules that give the "why" for the spelling and many times add other words under the original word that follow that same spelling rule. For finding the spelling rules, we use a book called: "The Alpha List - A Dictionary Focusing on the Logic of English Spelling" by Wanda Sanseri. (ISBN# 1-880045-15-X) This book is not a spelling curriculum, but a list of common misspelled words and the spelling rules for them. My daughter improved her spelling skills (as per a standardized test) by two grade levels in one year. We have found this to be a much better and longer lasting system than memorizing random spelling lists. > I have a lot of education experience, > but am fairly new to homeschooling. > My daughter, age 11, has adhd, but is > doing fairly well. She goes to public > school in the morning for math and science > (my least fav. subjects) and I homeschool > her for the rest of her subjects. (The > school is across the street from my > house and is the #1 rated middle school > in my 'large' city). Anyway, I was thrilled > to see this site on the web, especially > since my biggest concern with my daughter > is her writing (& spelling) skills. > Has anyone here worked with Writing > Stands? I purchased a workbook that > I like called Four Square writing method...anyone > ever use that? Anybody have any suggestions > re: resources for spelling? handwriting? > Thanks. ======================================== MESSAGE: Re: Great Source Handbooks AUTHOR: Janet in NM DATE: Sunday, 5 September 1999, at 11:47 a.m. Response To: Great Source Handbooks Author: LK Date: Sunday, 5 September 1999, at 9:16 a.m. Though the handbooks are not a curriculum, the company publishes workbooks with complete writing lessons, and in combination with the handbooks, provide a very thorough writing curriculum. Janet ======================================== MESSAGE: Interesting read on value of writing... AUTHOR: Liz is Happy Dennis is GONE!!! DATE: Sunday, 5 September 1999, at 1:01 p.m. Discusses some valid points, I think, on the decline of our society. The author makes the point that in order to bend the rules of writing (which is necessary sometimes) one must know the rules first. He blames tv, junk reading material, advertising, & ps. Very interesting read at www.grammarlady.com/tips.html (hot linked below) Liz ======================================== MESSAGE: Re: Writing Strands, etc. AUTHOR: Liz is Happy Dennis is GONE!!! DATE: Sunday, 5 September 1999, at 1:18 p.m. Response To: Writing Strands, etc. Author: Audrey Date: Sunday, 5 September 1999, at 12:45 a.m. I've tried these curriculums: Writing Strands, Understanding Writing, If You're Trying to Teach Kids..., Magic Pencil, and the Great Source books. They all have their strong & weak points. What finally made a difference in my 7th gr dd, was putting aside the curriculums to write. LOTS & LOTS of writing, anything we came up with, from our own ideas, to things we heard suggestions about. Her writing improved dramatically, and I'm no longer embarrassed for anyone to read her writing. She even won a recent writing contest. Successful writers will tell you it isn't so much that they have talent, but that they work at it--by sitting at their desks and writing, day in, day out. I still steer her towards areas she needs practice in, such a descriptive writing, persuasion, etc. I think writing is the hardest subject to teach-whether you hs or ps!! There are so many variables! Good luck! : ) Liz PS As for spelling, we do what Leslie does, our own spelling notebooks, and it works!! Up 2 grade levels in 1 year! ======================================== MESSAGE: My son doesn't like writing!!! AUTHOR: Kim DATE: Sunday, 5 September 1999, at 7:32 p.m. This is my first full year homeschooling my DS who is a gifted 6th grader. Writing is not his favorite subject, but one I feel he needs in life! I Purchased "Konos" "Writing the Novel Way" which gives lots of prompts in slow steps and concludes the year with a finished novel. This is our fourth week in it and we struggle through each step. DS says he just likes to write and make it up as he goes! My "experienced" HS moms suggest to just let him write! Any suggestions!!! Should I give up on the text stuff!!! ======================================== MESSAGE: Re: My son doesn't like writing!!! AUTHOR: Lee DATE: Sunday, 5 September 1999, at 9:01 p.m. Response To: My son doesn't like writing!!! Author: Kim Date: Sunday, 5 September 1999, at 7:32 p.m. Do you think you might discourage him by insisting on doing it by the book? Most of my kids hate writing so I am no expert. One of my dd's likes to write and is very creative but she just does it on her own. Maybe I should get her some sort of curriculum to show her the proper technique or whatever. ======================================== MESSAGE: Re: My son doesn't like writing!!! AUTHOR: Leslie DATE: Sunday, 5 September 1999, at 9:58 p.m. Response To: Re: My son doesn't like writing!!! Author: Lee Date: Sunday, 5 September 1999, at 9:01 p.m. Lee, If your daughter already likes to write, you run the risk of quenching that desire if you try to "school it up". You don't need a curriculum. Just let her write. The more she writes, the better she'll get. Also, the more she reads, the better she'll write. Leslie > Do you think you might discourage > him by insisting on doing it by the > book? Most of my kids hate writing so > I am no expert. One of my dd's likes > to write and is very creative but she > just does it on her own. Maybe I should > get her some sort of curriculum to show > her the proper technique or whatever. > > ======================================== MESSAGE: Thanks, Leslie... AUTHOR: Lee DATE: Sunday, 5 September 1999, at 10:52 p.m. Response To: Re: My son doesn't like writing!!! Author: Leslie Date: Sunday, 5 September 1999, at 9:58 p.m. that was what I was thinking too. She does love to read as well as write. ======================================== MESSAGE: Got a kid who's "all numbers"? Here's a writing idea... AUTHOR: Cerelle DATE: Monday, 6 September 1999, at 3:00 p.m. I just got this month's issue of Algebra Times in my e-mail inbox, and in this issue, Josh Rappaport (who writes the newsletter) suggests encouraging our children to keep math journals. What he recommends is giving them extra time at the end of each math session to write down any questions or thoughts that might have occurred to them while they were working on math. I think this is a great idea, especially for kids who love numbers more than letters. And Josh says we parents/teachers need not fall into the trap of thinking WE have to come up with the answers to the questions they record in their journals. The idea here is to encourage the verbal expression of mathematical ideas. I love it when someone reminds me that math and writing aren't necessarily worlds apart -- that they can co-exist on the same piece of paper and even in the same moment! Yea! By the way, Algebra Times is a wonderful resource for homeschoolers, and it's free. Here's the subscription info: ----------------- To subscribe to Algebra Times, send email to news@mathkits.com and write the word: subscribe on the Subject line in your email's header. (Note: Do not write "subscribe" in the body of your letter - only in the header. And don't write "Re:" before writing "subscribe") ----------------- Enjoy! Cerelle ======================================== MESSAGE: Re: Writing Strands, etc. AUTHOR: Angie DATE: Monday, 6 September 1999, at 3:19 p.m. Response To: Writing Strands, etc. Author: Audrey Date: Sunday, 5 September 1999, at 12:45 a.m. Excellent suggestions. I do use Writing Strands. My 14 yo daughter doesn't give me much flack about writing, and will do the journals and anything else I point out. My SONS (14&12), on the other hand, balk at journals and such. They do like Writing Strands; clear intructions to them (not me), a suggested schedule (you can go faster or slower), and, most important to them, there is an end in sight! In Writing Strands 3 (where you would start), the 1st lesson is on "Showing mom you CAN follow directions" I do copy work (and dictation) also, so this is not the only writing, but, believe it or not, it is among their favorite. I do Spelling like the ladies above, pulling words out of their writing and dictation work. It works! ======================================== MESSAGE: Re: Great Source Handbooks AUTHOR: Inge DATE: Tuesday, 7 September 1999, at 12:08 a.m. Response To: Re: Great Source Handbooks Author: Janet in NM Date: Sunday, 5 September 1999, at 11:47 a.m. Where can I order them? > Though the handbooks are not a > curriculum, the company publishes workbooks > with complete writing lessons, and in > combination with the handbooks, provide > a very thorough writing curriculum. > > Janet ======================================== MESSAGE: Re: Great Source Handbooks AUTHOR: Janet in NM DATE: Tuesday, 7 September 1999, at 1:30 p.m. Response To: Re: Great Source Handbooks Author: Inge Date: Tuesday, 7 September 1999, at 12:08 a.m. I ordered mine from Great Source itself. But I wouldn't do it again, and I wouldn't advise anyone else to. It's a very large company (a division of Haughton-Mifflin) and is designed to serve schools. Their reps have a hard time understanding the needs of the individual homeschooler, and I have had experiences with incorrect advice and orders, as have others who have dealt directly with them. Better to order from a homeschool supplier who carries just the things that the homeschooler can use. Anyway, long story short, here are two good companies: Rainbow Resource: www.rainbowresource.com Home School Resource Center: www.hsrc.com Janet > Where can I order them? ======================================== MESSAGE: Middle school writing.... AUTHOR: Christina DATE: Wednesday, 8 September 1999, at 12:03 p.m. Does anyone have any suggestions for a writing/grammar curriculum that is suitable for middle schoolers? I especially want one that is comprehensive and also very self explanatory and suitable for independent learning. I homeschool 6 and need something that does not require extensive instruction on a daily basis. ======================================== MESSAGE: Here's something... AUTHOR: Whitney DATE: Wednesday, 8 September 1999, at 1:28 p.m. Response To: Middle school writing.... Author: Christina Date: Wednesday, 8 September 1999, at 12:03 p.m. I have a book, "From Heart to Page: Journaling Through the Year for Young Writers." It has writing assignments for whenever you need them, and the assignments are pretty creative. An example of one is: "Describe a church service at your church," or "Sketch a travel poster for your town today. What is special about the place you live? Write a little advertisement inviting others to come and visit your tow." The book also has a lot of Christian questions to write about, such as "Part of living the Christian life is learning to serve other people. Choose someone in your life that needs encouragement or help... End your journal entry with a prayer for that person and ask God to help you put your words into action." It was written by Michelle Van Loon. It doesn't have a publisher, but the author's email is wvanloon@worldnet.att.net. Hope that helps!!! Whitney ======================================== MESSAGE: How About Writing Tears of JOY?? AUTHOR: Gwen DATE: Wednesday, 8 September 1999, at 1:53 p.m. Yes, that's right. Tears of JOY! Research clearly shows that the primary reason students dislike writing is that their writing is not judged on its thought content (that's what writing is), but rather on spelling and grammar. Therefore, when the student pours himself into a piece of writing and gets it back with instructions to correct, correct, correct, he becomes discouraged. By the time students re-vise, re-spell, and re-write, they are ready to re-bel! And many do! Their thought processes shut down in the area of writing because they no longer recognize their writing as the expression of their own minds, but as the reflection of a textbook. They logically interpret their "mistakes" as poor writing when their writing (expression of thought) may actually be very good. Think about it. When people tell us a story, we don't stop them and correct every error in their speech. If we did, they would soon stop telling us things. That's precisely what happens in writing. Two years ago, I created a writing course for home schoolers to help students and parents re-create a natural love for writing. The relaxed method of the course has proven to transform tears of despair into tears of joy. If anyone is interested in the course, here's the web address: http://writeon.faithweb.com Or my e-mail is igd77@lisco.net WRITE ON!! ======================================== MESSAGE: Creative flow vs. total washout AUTHOR: Carol DATE: Wednesday, 8 September 1999, at 2:30 p.m. Two years ago my dd and I did this "Draw a Story" exercise several times each week. She would draw a picture, thinking of a story to go with it as she drew. When she was finished she would dictate the story to me and I'd type it, print it and insert both the drawing and story into a notebook which we added to throughout the year. These stories were each about a page or two long. I'm sorry to say we got away from doing that last year. Reading the messages here has encouraged me to start doing this activity with her again and we have. She doesn't want to do "stories" this time, though - she wants to do a "chapter book." (7 years old now) I've noticed, however, that her stories (or chapters) seem to just ramble, compared to her stories of two years ago. Everything seems to be: "First she woke up, then she ate breakfast, then she brushed her teeth, then she played outside for a while, then she . . ." and so on ad nauseum. When I ask her to tell me what the story is ABOUT she is able to give me a pretty good synopsis: "It's about these friends that want to make a secret club, but they have some troubles along the way and have to fix the troubles." But she never seems to get to any of the friends, or the plans for a club or the troubles . . I seriously do not have a clue how to guide her along without discouraging her efforts so I just let her ramble and I just type the ramblings. Anybody got any experiences, ideas, recommended reading, etc. that can give me some insight into how to provide direction without intruding on the creative flow or offering too many suggestions to my "budding author?" Thanks! ======================================== MESSAGE: Re: Creative flow vs. total washout AUTHOR: Cerelle DATE: Wednesday, 8 September 1999, at 5:37 p.m. Response To: Creative flow vs. total washout Author: Carol Date: Wednesday, 8 September 1999, at 2:30 p.m. Well, Carol, I want you to know that I RECOGNIZE this phenomenon! My own kids have done this same kind of thing, and I've asked myself the same sorts of questions. First of all, I think it's natural for us to expect that our children's abilities will develop steadily -- always in a forward motion -- so that if we were to chart all their skills over time, we'd end up with all these little lines moving in an upwardly diagonal direction at a constant rate. Well....NOT. I don't think kids really grow that way. "One step forward and two steps backward" is more the general rule of things. One thing that occurred to me in your description of how your daughter's chapters are unfolding is that it sounds like she's showing a real interest in DETAIL. Two years ago, she was probably listening to (or reading) short and simple stories that were pretty much "all plot," and her compositions doubtless reflected that. But now, at 7, she's probably enjoying longer stories that include more little daily events in the lives of the characters, and that may be what she's wanting to achieve in her current writing. It might sound like pointless rambling, and we're left wondering "where's the beef?" -- but this might just be a sign of your daughter's increased maturity. Another possibility is that her ambition currently exceeds her skill level. (Oh boy, I feel that way every day, myself!) Writing a novel, chapter by chapter, is a huge job. Definitely, it's a fantastic thing that she has so much confidence and ambition at this stage of her life. The lively, original mind that wrote those wonderful and creative little stories 2 years ago is STILL THERE, chugging away -- it's just working in a different gear this year. Even if her writing stays kind of pedestrian and rambling all year long, I think it's just fine. She may be developing skills in a completely different area right now -- for instance, her drawings may be showing a whole lot of creativity and the writing may just be auxiliary to her visual art expression this year. If she's happy with what she is producing, ALL IS WELL. Above all, avoid letting her get the impression that her storytelling talent has diminished in any way -- that could spell disaster for her future confidence as a writer. Meanwhile, you could do creativity exercises with her, just for fun. These wouldn't have to have anything to do with writing, as such, and in fact, the prime benefit might be that they'll help YOU feel better! LOL! Cerelle ======================================== MESSAGE: Re: Creative flow vs. total washout AUTHOR: PattiC DATE: Thursday, 9 September 1999, at 9:50 a.m. Response To: Re: Creative flow vs. total washout Author: Cerelle Date: Wednesday, 8 September 1999, at 5:37 p.m. Hi Carol! As always, adore Cerelle's inspired perspective! My youngest , who adores to write and read (11yob), writes up a first paragraph or chapter that is all inspiration then usually has to stop, do a brainstorming sheet ( write everything he can think of on his topic/story in a few minutes or so), and then make himself some sort of rough "web" so he knows where his story is going and how he wants to get there. I introduced him to brainstorming and making webs last year as techniques to use in writing essays, but he has carried it over to his own personal creative writing with a lot of success. Maybe some of these techniques could be used ever so lightly with your daughter? Rough who, what, when, where and how "bubbles" are filled in with the information from the brainstorming page, with the extra info and adjectives branching out from these...giving you the web. Try it, but tread lightly, we do not want to stifle those creative juices or trounce on her enjoyment! > Well, Carol, I want you to know > that I RECOGNIZE this phenomenon! My > own kids have done this same kind of > thing, and I've asked myself the same > sorts of questions. > First of all, I think it's natural > for us to expect that our children's > abilities will develop steadily -- always > in a forward motion -- so that if we > were to chart all their skills over > time, we'd end up with all these little > lines moving in an upwardly diagonal > direction at a constant rate. Well....NOT. > I don't think kids really grow that > way. "One step forward and two > steps backward" is more the general > rule of things. > One thing that occurred to me in > your description of how your daughter's > chapters are unfolding is that it sounds > like she's showing a real interest in > DETAIL. Two years ago, she was probably > listening to (or reading) short and > simple stories that were pretty much > "all plot," and her compositions > doubtless reflected that. But now, at > 7, she's probably enjoying longer stories > that include more little daily events > in the lives of the characters, and > that may be what she's wanting to achieve > in her current writing. It might sound > like pointless rambling, and we're left > wondering "where's the beef?" > -- but this might just be a sign of > your daughter's increased maturity. > > Another possibility is that her > ambition currently exceeds her skill > level. (Oh boy, I feel that way every > day, myself!) Writing a novel, chapter > by chapter, is a huge job. Definitely, > it's a fantastic thing that she has > so much confidence and ambition at this > stage of her life. The lively, original > mind that wrote those wonderful and > creative little stories 2 years ago > is STILL THERE, chugging away -- it's > just working in a different gear this > year. > Even if her writing stays kind > of pedestrian and rambling all year > long, I think it's just fine. She may > be developing skills in a completely > different area right now -- for instance, > her drawings may be showing a whole > lot of creativity and the writing may > just be auxiliary to her visual art > expression this year. > If she's happy with what she is > producing, ALL IS WELL. Above all, avoid > letting her get the impression that > her storytelling talent has diminished > in any way -- that could spell disaster > for her future confidence as a writer. > > Meanwhile, you could do creativity > exercises with her, just for fun. These > wouldn't have to have anything to do > with writing, as such, and in fact, > the prime benefit might be that they'll > help YOU feel better! LOL! > Cerelle ======================================== MESSAGE: Re: Middle school writing.... AUTHOR: Brendan Desilets DATE: Friday, 10 September 1999, at 6:38 a.m. Response To: Middle school writing.... Author: Christina Date: Wednesday, 8 September 1999, at 12:03 p.m. Hi, Everyone, I don't have any particular grammar program to suggest, but I know that many home-schooled kids have had good on-line writing experiences with the Kidlink organization, which is on the Web at http://www.kidlink.org Starting on September 15, Kidlink, in its Kidforum division, is offering an opportunity for young people, up to age fifteen, to particpate in an exchange of views on friends and friendship; and, of course, home-schooled kids are most welcome. There's more information on the friendship topic at http://www.kidlink.org/KIDFORUM/friends99 I hope this is helpful. Peace, Brendan Desilets ======================================== MESSAGE: Institutes for Excellence in Writing AUTHOR: KarenS DATE: Friday, 10 September 1999, at 12:01 p.m. Has anyone used this? It's very expensive, but looks good. ======================================== MESSAGE: different approach AUTHOR: Gina Dawson DATE: Friday, 10 September 1999, at 10:56 p.m. I have a little different approach to writing I guess. I started last year having my daughter write whatever she wanted and then I gave her starters, that grew old real fast. She is just not gifted in creative writing, I'm not either and I hate it. So, this year I have her do a report on whatever she wants, this gives her writing practice by putting things in her own words and she is learning stuff at the same time. I guess I don't feel that I should make her do creative writing when it is a real struggle, I had the same problem, my brain just doesn't think that way. ======================================== MESSAGE: Re: Creative flow vs. total washout AUTHOR: Carol DATE: Saturday, 11 September 1999, at 1:30 p.m. Response To: Re: Creative flow vs. total washout Author: Cerelle Date: Wednesday, 8 September 1999, at 5:37 p.m. Thanks for the feedback, Cerelle! Tedious as it seems, I believe I probably should just let the "writing" flow and let the content evolve as she matures. Can you give me some examples of what you mean by "creativity exercises?" I've got resources for creating writing exercises, but I'm not sure I understand the the type non-writing activities you're suggesting. (Probably because I'm not "creative" enough myself.) "And then she sat under a tree, and then she got up, and then she went back inside, and then she . . . " <8-} ======================================== MESSAGE: Re: Creative flow vs. total washout AUTHOR: Carol DATE: Saturday, 11 September 1999, at 1:32 p.m. Response To: Re: Creative flow vs. total washout Author: PattiC Date: Thursday, 9 September 1999, at 9:50 a.m. Yikes! I'll have to learn to do this before I can help her do it! Have you ever seen any examples of this online or in print that I can use as a model? ======================================== MESSAGE: well after an hour of searching... AUTHOR: PattiC DATE: Saturday, 11 September 1999, at 3:40 p.m. Response To: Re: Creative flow vs. total washout Author: Carol Date: Saturday, 11 September 1999, at 1:32 p.m. No. So I will try and explain it. =8O Say your brainstorming for your story ( how about we use Charlottes Web) yeilds Wilbur,pig, runt, spider, barn, Fern, web, Templeton, mouse, kind, young, Charlotte, friend, lonely, hungry... You make a large circle with Wilbur in it then a line/spoke to another smaller circle with pig inside and another small circle for the other adjectives or other words having to do with Wilbur resulting in a "web" about Wilbur. You would do the same thing for all the other characters or topics that you got from your brainstorming ( sometimes interconnecting the related topics). This is a LOT more complicated then you probably want to get into with her just yet but I wanted to try to give a complete explanation. To start out with your daughter, you could do a story she already knows, the shorter the better. You could even try the who what when where and how style web ( although how may not make much sense to her). Keep it short and simple as you can. Towards writing her own story, you could ask her who is the story about, and what happens( in a sentence or two). Then she could brainstorm about those ideas ( dictating to you as much as she can think of about the main characters and the story itself, one topic at a time). Together organize it into a web. I wouldn't try this more than once in a blue moon, not with every writing project she wants to do. You definately want to go VERY easy with this but it might help her see the story should have some sort of loose structure. And my kids like doing it...like making their own puzzle. Another technique is for her to make a story board style drawing herself to work out how the story begins, unfolds, and ends. That you could probably do more often. Hope this is helpful and not too confusing. > Yikes! I'll have to learn to do > this before I can help her do it! Have > you ever seen any examples of this online > or in print that I can use as a model? > ======================================== MESSAGE: Re: spelling AUTHOR: Terri DATE: Saturday, 11 September 1999, at 7:24 p.m. Response To: spelling Author: Leslie Date: Sunday, 5 September 1999, at 11:33 a.m. Where can I find this book? Terri ======================================== MESSAGE: Re: spelling AUTHOR: Leslie DATE: Saturday, 11 September 1999, at 10:31 p.m. Response To: Re: spelling Author: Terri Date: Saturday, 11 September 1999, at 7:24 p.m. I'm not sure where you can find this book now. It's written by a homeschooler. I bought it through Great Christian Books. I know they are out of business now. At the time I bought my copy, GCB was the only catalog carrying the book. That was a year or two ago. The publisher is Back Home Industries Inc. PO Box 22495; Milwaukie, OR 97269. I hope you can find it. It's a great little book. For several years, I looked and looked in every catalog and teachers book store for a book like it. All I wanted was a list of spelling rules, no lists or tests, just the rules. No one had anything like it. When I saw it in the GCB catalog, I ordered it imediately. I think I paid around $12 to $14 for it. Leslie > Where can I find this book? > Terri ======================================== MESSAGE: Re: Creative flow vs. total washout AUTHOR: Leslie DATE: Saturday, 11 September 1999, at 10:49 p.m. Response To: Creative flow vs. total washout Author: Carol Date: Wednesday, 8 September 1999, at 2:30 p.m. Carol, My teenage daughter has been reading mystery novels...you know the ones where you can't wait to turn the page. This has really made her writing interesting. Now, instead of writing a "then she did this, then she did this" she writes very descriptive, almost in color. For instance, she and her cousin are writing a novel. She gave her cousin ideas on how to make it more interesting. Instead of describing all the details of each person and place in a boring way, she wrote something like this..."The car came screaming down the wet road. Cindy panicked and ran into the woods..." This was her introduction to the book. Instead of... "Cindy was 15 years old, lived in a country house, went to a big school, had lots of friends....." Rather than report form, it's more of a grabber from the beginning. Anyway, reading many different styles of writing helps to increase writing ability. Leslie > Two years ago my dd and I did this > "Draw a Story" exercise several > times each week. She would draw a picture, > thinking of a story to go with it as > she drew. When she was finished she > would dictate the story to me and I'd > type it, print it and insert both the > drawing and story into a notebook which > we added to throughout the year. These > stories were each about a page or two > long. I'm sorry to say we got away from > doing that last year. > Reading the messages here has encouraged > me to start doing this activity with > her again and we have. She doesn't want > to do "stories" this time, > though - she wants to do a "chapter > book." (7 years old now) > I've noticed, however, that her > stories (or chapters) seem to just ramble, > compared to her stories of two years > ago. Everything seems to be: "First > she woke up, then she ate breakfast, > then she brushed her teeth, then she > played outside for a while, then she > . . ." and so on ad nauseum. When > I ask her to tell me what the story > is ABOUT she is able to give me a pretty > good synopsis: "It's about these > friends that want to make a secret club, > but they have some troubles along the > way and have to fix the troubles." > But she never seems to get to any of > the friends, or the plans for a club > or the troubles . . . > I seriously do not have a clue > how to guide her along without discouraging > her efforts so I just let her ramble > and I just type the ramblings. Anybody > got any experiences, ideas, recommended > reading, etc. that can give me some > insight into how to provide direction > without intruding on the creative flow > or offering too many suggestions to > my "budding author?" > Thanks! ======================================== MESSAGE: 8 silly ways to be more creative TODAY! AUTHOR: Cerelle DATE: Monday, 13 September 1999, at 2:29 a.m. Response To: Re: Creative flow vs. total washout Author: Carol Date: Saturday, 11 September 1999, at 1:30 p.m. Ha ha! Does that sound like a magazine headline or what? But Carol asked, "Can you give me some examples of what you mean by 'creativity exercises?'" -- so here's my mostly inadequate answer... I really didn't have anything real fancy in mind -- just something in the "divergent thinking" vein, I suppose, the idea being to loosen up the thought processes a bit, so that instead of doing the usual thing -- trying to zero in on the "one right answer" -- we encourage ourselves and our kids to generate multiple possible answers. Am I making any sense yet? You want examples, right? OK, here are a few VERY simple ideas (you'll be saying, "Shucks, we do this every day, already!"): 1.) The answer is "Ten." What's the question? Think of as many questions as you can (perhaps in a pre-agreed time period) to which the answer is exactly 10. Ex.: How many toes do I have? What is 25 - 15? How many years in a decade? How many dots on a double-five domino? How many puppies did Brownie have last summer?) 2.) Play "Curious Connections." In this "game," you begin with two completely different items or ideas and establish some kind of relationship between them. There aren't any rules here -- just have fun. If the two items are, let's say, a diamond ring and a dog, you could tell a story about how a dog restored a ring to its rightful owner, or you could draw a picture of a tiny circus dog jumping through a diamond ring, or you could simply point out that "dog" and "diamond" both begin with the letter D. 3.) Look at the world from a fresh angle. This could mean standing on your head in the middle of the living room. It could mean reading the comics through a magnifying glass. It could mean having pizza for breakfast or oatmeal for dinner. It could mean using acorns for math manipulatives. It could mean imagining that you've just grown 20 feet, and that little bug on the sidewalk might be Grandpa. Careful -- don't step on him! 4.) Play a familiar game, but change the rules. (If you turn pale at the thought -- like I always used to -- it means you could probably use a little more creativity in your daily life!) For example, you could play your favorite card game, but let all the queens be "wild cards" and agree that each player takes two turns at a time. If the game doesn't work well under the new rules, no harm done -- and in fact, you've both learned something! If you keep experimenting, you might discover ways to make certain games more satisfying or fairer or more exciting -- or you might develop a deeper appreciation for the old rules. 5.) Take half an hour to make up new words for familiar household objects. Write them on cards and attach them to the objects in question. See if you can memorize them all by the end of the day. (Caution: This is one of those seemingly harmless activities that can snowball on you. Your kids could end up insisting that everyone refer to the dining table as a "hoxy-poxy" for the next several weeks.) 6.) Come up with 10 new uses for some routine object, like a paper clip. In the arena of creative activities, this one's terribly overused (in my opinion), but it still has its place. Kids tend to be really good at thinking up new applications for napkin rings or those little plastic tabs that keep bread sacks closed -- and sometimes we adults are lucky enough to profit from the originality of their ideas. 7.) Imagine you're granted a wish that will last for exactly one hour. What will you wish for? Try to think of lots of different things and then choose one. 8.) Put on some instrumental music, close your eyes, and let it suggest a story. Start with a setting, then add a character, and so on. Most educators tend to do this with classical recordings, and that's fine -- but why not try jazz or blues or folk? What about a good drum solo or bagpipes? Well, that's a start. I imagine lots of parents do things like this with their kids intuitively and never think of them as "creativity exercises," per se. You can find long lists of ideas like these in books and articles that are specifically about boosting creativity, but it's probably more CREATIVE to think up your own. LOL! Have fun! Cerelle ======================================== MESSAGE: Here's an interesting website... AUTHOR: Cerelle DATE: Monday, 13 September 1999, at 2:50 a.m. Response To: Re: Creative flow vs. total washout Author: Carol Date: Saturday, 11 September 1999, at 1:30 p.m. Somewhere in the back of my head, I must have remembered that you asked Patti for a website about webbing, because I went looking for good sites with creativity exercises. "Enchanted Mind" really looks good. I haven't had time to explore the whole site, but they make some good points here about the dampening effects of a typical education on creativity, etc., and there appear to be many attractive links and features. Enjoy! http://enchantedmind.com/tools.htm Cerelle ======================================== MESSAGE: Book recommendation AUTHOR: Kat DATE: Monday, 13 September 1999, at 3:50 p.m. I recently read _Lessons From a Child, On the Teaching and Learning of Writing_ by Lucy McCormick Calkins. It's got our whole household infected with the writing bug, even my husband had to try it out when he comes home after work...he saw the girls and I having so much fun with it. The book is mostly concerned with 2nd and 3rd grade children, but the information is applicable to anyone. Kat ======================================== MESSAGE: New Writing Club met today for plans.... AUTHOR: Dawne DATE: Monday, 13 September 1999, at 9:01 p.m. Hello All!! We got our writing club off to a good start with a planning meeting today. We've got kids from age 6 1/2 to age 10! Looks like at least 7 families. Hooray!! To me, that's terrific. The club also feels very balanced in the boy:girl ratio which I am very excited about. We've got a first meeting date set aside, oh...and a place to meet. [we all know how important securing a good place is!] To open the club the kids will all be giving a "book recommendation" to the group. One mom has already volunteered to host the first session and plan the activity. We generated tons of ideas of what we could do. One thing for sure is that at the end of the year or several months down the road the kids will be able to place their "best" work into a "group-produced" book. We'll have it bound professionally at the local Office Depot and it doesn't cost much. I think this will be a very exciting thing for the kids. Just wanted you all to know that it was very helpful posting here and getting all your ideas. It helped me to have a framework to think in and to generate ideas of my own. Thank you again. Dawne Oh, since this topic is only for Sept. I'll be here again with more questions I'm sure :0) ======================================== MESSAGE: Re: New Writing Club met today for plans.... AUTHOR: Giovanna DATE: Monday, 13 September 1999, at 10:57 p.m. Response To: New Writing Club met today for plans.... Author: Dawne Date: Monday, 13 September 1999, at 9:01 p.m. > Hello All!! We got our writing > club off to a good start with a planning > meeting today. We've got kids from age > 6 1/2 to age 10! Looks like at least > 7 families. Hooray!! To me, that's terrific. > The club also feels very balanced in > the boy:girl ratio which I am very excited > about. This is terrific! Dawne, I'd like to know everything you end up doing with your writing club. I really want to start one. Please post ideas and what your plans are as they develop. Giovanna ======================================== MESSAGE: Giovanna, just the woman I wanted to talk to... AUTHOR: Dawne DATE: Tuesday, 14 September 1999, at 9:31 a.m. Response To: Re: New Writing Club met today for plans.... Author: Giovanna Date: Monday, 13 September 1999, at 10:57 p.m. > This is terrific! Dawne, I'd like > to know everything you end up doing > with your writing club. I really want > to start one. Please post ideas and > what your plans are as they develop. > Great timing!! I was gonna email you today on this very subject! I know you want to start a writing club too. One of the things I'd like to see would be some of our kids paired with kids from your group to be pen-pals or e-pals. Wouldn't that be fun? I don't think EVERY kid in our group would be interested but I'm guessing many of them would be. Believe it or not it your link to the page on dictation was perfectly timed. MANY of the kids in our group will benefit from this. Including my own son whom I suspect to be dyslexic and some of the younger 6s. We met in a park to plan while the kids played. We set up some goals and found a meeting time (the hardest part). We just decided first of all to be flexible and relaxed. Some kids may draw a lot or write captions while others may write paragraphs. Everything is just fine with us. We also agreed there would be NO editing in the first few months. Later as the year progresses we'll tackle that. We'll be meeting 2x a month. Luckily it looks like we have the use of a church. We will split the younger siblings into one room and the 6 and above into the other. This way we can take turns helping our older kids in the writing club. Each week a diff. mom will supervise the younger ones. The younger kids will be allowed to play but will also be read to. All the kids will bring a snack/lunch to the meeting. The meetings last 1 hour and a half. We all agree that parents must be there. They know where their own child is in development and also need some clue as to what is going on so they can help the child with the "in between activities". For our next meeting late this month we have decided that each child will "review" a book for the group [whatever that means to each child]. So, I think the meeting will go like this. Show up and settle down. Introduce ourselves. Each child shares their book review and is applauded, NO criticism constructive or otherwise. Then one of the moms will have an activity. I don't know what she'll do. But the "host" of that meeting is responsible for getting books from the library around their "theme". Then as a group we do something in line with her theme and then the kids are encouraged to do it more independently or with help from mom for the rest of the meeting. The take home activity will follow what they "learned or practiced" in that session. Then 2 weeks later we do it again. Present "take home work". Learn something new. Read good books and work indiv. or in small groups. Hand out assignment for next meeting. Somewhere in that time we'll feed 'em too!! You know how food soothes even the savage beast, ha ha. Some of the things we'll be doing: round robin stories sequencing (many sentances from the book just read and the kids have to put them back in order) poetry (the haiku, cinquain, couplet) I would like to see the group tackle "literary devices" such as personification and alliteration. We could read Mike Mulligan and his steam shovel. Talk about how she has a face, dialogue and emotions. Encourage the kids to create a story where some inanimate object is personified. I'd also like, LATER in the year, to give proper attention to PARTS of a book. Why the table of contents is where it is, what function it serves. What a preface is and why we have an index or glossary in the back. Ok, maybe some of this may be "too much" but certainly the table of contents and preface should be covered. After all, our writers are creating a book! Why not just jump in once you've got a few families? We're kinda playin it by ear these first few months but I think it'll work out just fine. At the end of the year we will have a book created by the group. This is where I think editing falls in nicely. They will WANT their best stuff in a "book" you know and should be very open to gentle suggestions and learning certain "rules" and such. Keep us posted when and how your club forms, Dawne ======================================== MESSAGE: No, but I just heard about them from another mom... AUTHOR: Dawne DATE: Tuesday, 14 September 1999, at 9:35 a.m. Response To: Institutes for Excellence in Writing Author: KarenS Date: Friday, 10 September 1999, at 12:01 p.m. > Has anyone used this? It's very > expensive, but looks good. Are you referring to the all day workshops they put on? Kids in I believe 4th grade and above go to an all day workshop put on by 2 professional authors. We have an Institute for Excellence in Writing about 90 min. away. I haven't checked it out b/c my son is too young. Is this what you meant? IF it is I have heard they are WELL worth the time. Dawne ======================================== MESSAGE: An idea... AUTHOR: Dawne DATE: Tuesday, 14 September 1999, at 9:45 a.m. Response To: Creative flow vs. total washout Author: Carol Date: Wednesday, 8 September 1999, at 2:30 p.m. > is ABOUT she is able to give me a pretty > good synopsis: "It's about these > friends that want to make a secret club, > but they have some troubles along the > way and have to fix the troubles." > But she never seems to get to any of > the friends, or the plans for a club > or the troubles . . . ok, here is what I thought when I read your post. Maybe she needs what I think is a "story board". In a summer reading club this year the last book was "Make your Own Space Story". The first thing we did was take a poster size piece of paper [included] and jot down what each page would have on it. Ben did NOT want to do this however; he did it b/c he thought all the other kids would be doing it :) So he gave me a feel for the larger work and I helped him break in into pieces so that each page would have room for a pic. and a sentance. ANYway...the point is that maybe she needs to see the bigger picture. Brainstorm it and then jot in down somehow. THEN as she goes forward in the story's development she can refer back to HER OWN IDEAS at any time. You cannot get the book I mentioned in the library but you can buy any book from the "Make Your Own _____________ Story" series and see if it works. Or just take the idea of jotting down the rough plot and filling in details. FWIW, I was told by the reading club leader that Ben had one of the best stories. I think it was because he had a plan and followed it. Many kids didn't do that step and their work was dis-jointed and scattered. Their moms also reported a "struggle" to get them to do the work, etc.., Dawne ======================================== MESSAGE: FYI, Zany Brainy is hosting a Journal Jam journal club that I believe follows the American Girls theme. nt AUTHOR: Dawne DATE: Tuesday, 14 September 1999, at 9:46 a.m. a ======================================== MESSAGE: Homeschooler email/geography project. Could be great for the kids who keyboard eagerly but complain over "writing". (details inside) AUTHOR: Dawne DATE: Wednesday, 15 September 1999, at 10:32 a.m. Just forwarding this along. Hello! My name is Amanda and I am a homeschooler in the 5th grade. I live Goodlettsville, Tennessee, USA, about 15 miles north of Nashville. I have decided to map an email project. I am curious to see where In the world my email will travel by Internet, between August 10 - October 10, 1999. I would like your help. If you receive this message, please: 1) email back and tell me your location so I can plot it on my world map; AND, 2) Send my letter on to more people. Thank you for any help you can give. My email address is: jtandmt@mindspring.com Thanks again, Amanda Taylor ======================================== MESSAGE: Re: Giovanna, just the woman I wanted to talk to... AUTHOR: Giovanna DATE: Wednesday, 15 September 1999, at 5:02 p.m. Response To: Giovanna, just the woman I wanted to talk to... Author: Dawne Date: Tuesday, 14 September 1999, at 9:31 a.m. > We also agreed > there would be NO editing in the first > few months. Later as the year progresses > we'll tackle that. Yes this is good. My big goal for our writing club wouldn't be handwriting improvement. I want to see some creative juices flowing! I want to see the kids inventing and creating. Later on the grammar part of it can be addressed. Maybe. :-) > We'll be meeting 2x a month. I think this is good. At first I thought once a month. But I don't think that's frequent enough. > Each child shares their book > review and is applauded, NO criticism > constructive or otherwise. Will this be an oral review or will it be written? Have you thought of giving your writing club a "name?" Giovanna (who survived Hurricane Floyd...I had to evacuate my home but the storm took a turn at an unexpected hour...we have minor damage, nothing serious. I'm glad to be back home) ======================================== MESSAGE: WELCOME BACK!!!! AUTHOR: Dawne DATE: Wednesday, 15 September 1999, at 5:29 p.m. Response To: Re: Giovanna, just the woman I wanted to talk to... Author: Giovanna Date: Wednesday, 15 September 1999, at 5:02 p.m. > Yes this is good. My big goal for > our writing club wouldn't be handwriting > improvement. I want to see some creative > juices flowing! I want to see the kids > inventing and creating. Later on the > grammar part of it can be addressed. > Maybe. :-) I don't think handwriting or "penmanship" will EVER be an issue in this club. > I think this is good. At first I thought once a month. But I don't think that's frequent enough. I think for this age group 2 x month is pretty good. > Will this be an oral review or will it be written? They are encouraged to "write" a review. That may mean draw a picture about the book, a caption, sentance or even a paragraph. It will be shared BY THEM orally. > Have you thought of giving your writing club a "name?" Well...no. Can't believe we didn't even think of that. > Giovanna (who survived Hurricane Floyd...I had to evacuate my home but the storm took a turn at an unexpected hour...we have minor damage, nothing > serious. I'm glad to be back home) Welcome home! Glad you are all safe but what happened to the ducks? And...when you left did you rush to save the curricula and DK books? Dawne ======================================== MESSAGE: Writing Club AUTHOR: Giovanna DATE: Wednesday, 15 September 1999, at 6:17 p.m. Response To: WELCOME BACK!!!! Author: Dawne Date: Wednesday, 15 September 1999, at 5:29 p.m. > They are encouraged to "write" > a review. That may mean draw a picture > about the book, a caption, sentance > or even a paragraph. It will be shared > BY THEM orally. This is a great idea for the club's kickoff meeting. Maybe you can let the kids pick a name for the writing club? > Welcome home! Glad you are all > safe but what happened to the ducks? > And...when you left did you rush to > save the curricula and DK books? HA! Yes! I did save curricula and my most cherished DK books. I couldn't save them all. We didn't have enough trunk space in the car. We took our dog and our rabbit. We tried to put our ducks in a crate but they wouldn't stand for it. I finally had leave them and hope they would be able to sustain the storm. I left the house in tears. The ducks did just fine, though! And we had no water damage or flooding of any kind so everything is pretty much intact. Thank God! I'm really excited about the writing club and I am very thankful that you have posted your wonderful ideas for me to copy! :-) I plan to have a mom's meeting soon. How long will you meetings be? 2 hours? Giovanna ======================================== MESSAGE: Re: Writing Club AUTHOR: Dawne DATE: Wednesday, 15 September 1999, at 8:51 p.m. Response To: Writing Club Author: Giovanna Date: Wednesday, 15 September 1999, at 6:17 p.m. We chose to meet for 1 1/2 hours. Of course a good 30 min. of that will be food time but that's ok. glad to hear the ducks are ok, guess they really do like water :) Here in MD we are getting some "nice" rain and tomorrow is billed as a tropical storm. but writing club isn't until the 27th so we'll be fine sitting it out at home. I like the idea of kids giving book reviews. Most of them have seen Reading Rainbow and the end is a really great segment. We often get those books after hearing other kids talk about them. Enjoy the planning meeting. Its really a great brainstorming exercise for the grown ups. Dawne ========================================Back to the TopBack to the Digest Index